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Dimensions: 70 by 87cm., 27 1/2 by 34 1/4 in.
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Provenance: Acquired by the mother of the present owner in the 1920s
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Notes: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, USA
Paintings from the Colefax Collection
Lots 10-12
The 1920s saw a glittering set of Russian émigrés arrive in New York, of whom Sonia Colefax was by all accounts one of the most engaging. She had begun life in Russia, the daughter of a successful fisheries merchant appointed by the Tsar, but left before the Revolution, as she would recall, with only her books and school uniform. After a brief post-war marriage in Germany she began a new life in New York in 1922, immediately enlisting a compatriot to build her a Russian dacha on Long Island, which would become a mecca for Russian musicians, artists, intellects and bohemians, entertained by her resident gypsy singer and catered for by a Russian cook. Into this setting Sonia had already installed stunning paintings by Mikhail Nesterov and Alexander Moravov, and she continued to build her collection in the States and over a series of five trips to Europe between 1924 and 1930. A passionate and discerning collector, in Los Angeles she would later buy over 50 canvases by Konstantin Kuznetsov as well as works by early American painters, glassware, early American and English furniture. Of the numerous figures drawn by her magnetic character was Peter Colefax, whom Sonia met towards the end of the 1920s and was married to for over 25 years. Peter was the eldest son of another remarkable lady of her era, Sybil Colefax, famous today as a founding partner of the interior design company Colefax & Fowler. In her day however, it was as a celebrated hostess that Sybil came to eminence, entertaining the full array of London society from Virginia Wolfe to Edward VIII. She only revealed her true talent and resourcefulness as a designer after losing her fortune in the 1929 Wall St Crash and her husband soon after. The unusual, colourful lineage of the collection is matched only by the rarity of finding pieces of such exceptional quality still in private hands and it is our privilege to offer this group of works from the 1920s, one of the most important transitional periods in Russian art and history. Catalogue note for Lot 10: Vinogradov was en route to New York to organise the Russian Art Exhibition when he visited Riga with Grabar and Somov in December 1923. He was so taken by the "delightful tranquility" of Riga that after his trip to America, "with its never-ending chatter and almost manic sense of hurry" Vinogradov moved to Latvian capital in late summer of that year and never returned to Moscow. Lady in an Interior was one of the first paintings executed in the flat he and his wife rented at 8 Elizabetes Street in the city centre, the recent date of the move reflected in the relative austerity of the room. Although the subject faces away from the viewer, her figure, haircut and her shoes suggest that she is Vinogradov's wife, Irina Kazimirovna Voitsekhovskaya, whom he painted often in his Crimean landscapes of 1915-17 and in a series of paintings of 1925, including Morning, By the Lake, Summertime. High ceilings and large windows create a beautiful interplay of light and shade and a sense of space which is so successfully conveyed by the artist in myriad green and golden tones. The delicate pink of the model's dress balances his chosen palette perfectly. Six years later Vinogradov painted the same interior during the winter ( Christmas Tree, 1930, fig.1), shortly before moving. Leaning against the wall between the windows is the New York exhibition poster which featured a reproduction of Boris Kustodiev's The Cab driver. Vinogradov was the driving force behind this remarkable exhibition at the Grand Central Palace on Lexington Avenue in which he exhibited twenty landscapes. The logistics involved in arranging an exhibition of works by over a hundred artists were considerable, particularly since the pictures were divided up after New York and sent to various cities throughout the country, all of which is described in his account 'On the Exhibition of Russian Art in America' in the Latvian newspaper Perezvony (1925, No.1). The offered lot will be included in the forthcoming Sergei Vinogradov catalogue raisonné by Nina Lapidus, to whom we are grateful for writing this catalogue note.
